Sponsored App Review: Blacklist Plus

June 26, 2013 - Written By Tom Dawson

I think by now, we’ve all come across spam SMS and annoying calls from pushy salespeople. It’s especially annoying if you’re had your current number for a long time, and everyone out there knows how to find you. Sure, we could just change our numbers when the spammers come calling or that friend we fell out with starts harassing us again but, why should we? This is our number, not theirs. The solution lies in a call and SMS blocker, they’ve been on Android for some time now and over the years they’ve gotten more and more sophisticated. Can Blacklist Plus help you to quiet down those nasty spammers with their intrusive texts, and worse, phone calls? Read on to find out.

Description: Blacklist Plus is a sort of Swiss Army knife when it comes to call and SMS blocking, you can not only add numbers from your address book but, also set up filters to block unknown numbers and more. If you know of a number that’s been calling folks in your area, you can easily tap that number in and have Blacklist Plus keep them from getting to you. There are a whole host of options to customize and there’s even the ability to password protect your settings in the Pro version of the app. For those that are fed up of having their privacy invaded, Blacklist Plus is perhaps one of the easiest apps to make sure you keep your privacy intact.

How it Works: To start taking back control of your smartphone, you’ll have to go ahead and download the app from the Play Store, and then start setting up your blacklist.

When you first install the game, your blacklist will be empty but, it’s really easy to add numbers to this list:

You can add numbers, as you can see above, as well as add those from your address book. Perhaps the easiest way to use Blacklist Plus is by changing the blocking mode. You can do this so that everyone but your contacts are blocked, which is great if you never pick up the phone to unknown numbers.

You can also choose the blocking method:

It’s a shame that you can’t stop the caller ringing you in the first place but, phones aren’t set-up for that sort of thing. You can also schedule the blocking as well, which is handy if you’re expecting a call, you can always leave it off for a time:

Overall, the UI is a little sparse but it’s easy enough to work your way around and it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Opinion: I’ve had my number for around 5 or 6 years now and with that comes a lot of spam texts and calls. Here in the UK, things are perhaps a little different but there are a number of scams here that just won’t die. I constantly get texts asking if I’ve been in an accident recently and calls from dodgy insurance salespeople. I don’t want to have to deal with these calls and so Blacklist Plus lets me take back my privacy, and it’s also helped me to simply tap in these numbers and then report them to whoever needs telling. A lot of us are locked into two-year contracts, entirely by choice, do we want to be harassed by salespeople and the like for the length of our contract? No, of course not, Blacklist Plus can help prevent that with little effort needed.

Ratings

Speed (4/5) – There’s no slowdown with the app, and it runs as smoothly as any other app would on your phone.

Features (5/5) – Blacklist Plus does exactly what it says it does, and with a bevy of options and tweaks, you can use this just how you want to.

Theme (3.5/5) – This reminds us a lot of the Gingerbread days of Android, it’s easy enough to follow but it could do with being brought up-to-date on the looks front.

Overall (4/5) – Blacklist Plus is a solid offering for those that want to block certain callers, numbers and texts altogether, easily one of the most comprehensive apps out there.

Scheduling makes it easy to keep things quiet overnight or when you know the salespeople are canvassing.

Managing both the blacklist and the whitelist is very easy.

There are two methods of call-blocking.

Cons

A nice Holo theme would freshen up the interface.

No way to stop the number even ringing your phone – probably an Android thing though.

Conclusion: Overall, Blacklist Plus offers users a great way to take back a little bit of privacy and make sure that their phone number is not quickly overrun with spam. Thanks to the scheduling feature, you can block these calls only when you’re sleeping or when you’re trying to catch some peace and quiet over dinner. It’s easy to add numbers to the blacklist manually, which means you can add all those numbers that your friends and family have been telling you about as well. While there’s big money in telesales, and some call centers are doing good work, that doesn’t mean that we should have to put up with their incessant calls. Now that we know our data isn’t as safe as we first thought, it’s more likely than ever that unscrupulous companies will use our phone numbers to contact us. With Blacklist Plus you can rest a little easier, knowing that these numbers can easily be blocked.